World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:9, No:7, 2015

Mechanical Behavior of Recycled Pet Fiber

Reinforced Concrete Matrix
Comingstarful Marthong, Deba Kumar Sarma

 saving in the disposal. Excellent contributions of PET fiber in

Abstract—Concrete is strong in compression however weak in
tension. The tensile strength as well as ductile property of concrete
could be improved by addition of short dispersed fibers. Polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) fiber obtained from hand cutting or mechanical
slitting of plastic sheets generally used as discrete reinforcement in
substitution of steel fiber. PET fiber obtained from the former process
is in the form of straight slit sheet pattern that impart weaker
mechanical bonding behavior in the concrete matrix. To improve the
limitation of straight slit sheet fiber the present study considered two
International Science Index Vol:9, No:7, 2015 waset.org/Publication/10002312
concrete using a different form of PET fibers have been
explored [1]-[4].
Research revealed that PET fiber in concrete has a
significant role in term of bonding and strength [1].
Nevertheless, PET fiber has a very weak bond with cement
paste. To improve the bond strength, fiber may be drawn into
different geometry and size. Hand cutting PET fibers is in the
form of straight slit sheet either in a short or long [1], [3]. It

additional geometry of fiber namely (a) flattened end slit sheet and
(b) deformed slit sheet. The mix for plain concrete was design for a
compressive strength of 25 MPa at 28 days curing time with a water-
cement ratio of 0.5. Cylindrical and beam specimens with 0.5% fibers
volume fraction and without fibers were cast to investigate the
influence of geometry on the mechanical properties of concrete. The
performance parameters mainly studied include flexural strength,
splitting tensile strength, compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse
velocity (UPV). Test results show that geometry of fiber has a
marginal effect on the workability of concrete. However, it plays a
significant role in achieving a good compressive and tensile strength
of concrete. Further, significant improvement in term of flexural and
energy dissipation capacity were observed from other fibers as
compared to the straight slit sheet pattern. Also, the inclusion of PET
fiber improved the ability in absorbing energy in the post-cracking
state of the specimen as well as no significant porous structures.
Keywords—Concrete matrix, polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
fibers, mechanical bonding, mechanical properties, UPV.
I. INTRODUCTION
was observed that straight slit sheet fibers typically have low
bond strength with the concrete matrix as compared to the
other geometries. Therefore, in order to improve the
mechanical bonding of PET fiber on the concrete matrix
different geometries of PET fibers is designed and the study is
carried out to observe the effect on mechanical properties.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
A. Cement and Aggregates
Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) of 53 grades conforming
to Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) [5] was considered.
Aggregates of about 12 mm size from crushed basalt rock and
river sand was used as coarse and fine aggregates. All
materials are tested as per relevant BIS codes [6], [7].
B. PET Fibers
By maintaining the same cross-sectional area (7.2 cm2
approx.) the fibers as shown in Fig. 1 were produced by hand

C ONCRETE is known to be weak in tensile strength and

crack resistance. Conventionally, steel reinforcement is
provided in concrete in order to carry the tensile forces and
cutting into different geometries as per guidelines provided by
ACI [8] for steel fiber. The fibers geometries are (a) Straight
slit sheet (b) flattened-end slit sheet and (c) deformed slit
prevent any cracking. Adding short dispersed fibers could help sheet.
in enhancing the flexural and tensile strength of the concrete. C. Casting and Curing of Specimens
The main fibers used as concrete reinforcing materials are
steel, glass, and polymeric fiber. The polymeric fibers that can The mix for ordinary concrete was design for a compressive
strength of 25 MPa at 28 days curing time with a water-
be used in concrete reinforcements are nylon, aramid,
cement ratio (w/c) of 0.5. PET fiber with fiber volume
polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester, etc.
fractions of 0.5% was considered. A conventional step of
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles have been replaced
mixing was adopted. Test specimens were designated as SP1,
glass bottles as a storage container because of its easy
SP2, SP3, and SP4 as illustrated in Table I. Concrete
handling, storage, and lightweight. Therefore, the productions
containing no fiber was used as reference specimens (SP1).
of PET bottles have increased exponentially. Utilizing these
The specimens were demoulded after 24 hours of casting and
waste bottles in any form would be benefitted not only in the
were kept in the water tank for 28 days curing period.
prevention of the environmental pollution but also energy

Comingstarful Marthongis with the Civil Engineering Department,

National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, India 793003 (phone: +91 0364-
2501294, Fax: +91 0364-2501113; e-mail: commarthong@nitm.ac.in).
Deba Kumar Sarmais with the Mechanical Engineering Department,
National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, India 793003(e-mail:
dksarma@nitm.ac.in).

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International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:9, No:7, 2015

TABLE I
SPECIMENS DESIGN
Specimen Size (mm) Testing Methodology Characteristics
Flexural and
Beam:
Ultrasonic pulse
100x100x400 Concrete with 0%
SP1 velocity (UPV)
fiber
Cylindrical: Compressive and
150x300 splitting tensile
Beam:
Flexural and UPV Concrete with
100x100x400
SP2 0.5% straight
Cylindrical: Compressive and
slitsheet fiber
150x300 splitting tensile
Beam:
Flexural and UPV Concrete with
(a) 100x100x400
SP3 0.5% flattened
Cylindrical: Compressive and
end slit sheet fiber
150x300 splitting tensile
Beam:
Flexural and UPV Concrete with
100x100x400
SP4 0.5% deformed
Cylindrical: Compressive and
slit sheet fiber
150x300 splitting tensile
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IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Fresh Concrete Properties
In fresh concrete – concrete should be a workable state so
that desired shape can be moulded. Thus, the workability of
concrete indicates the degree of fluidity or mobility and
(b)
surface finishing without detachment. The workability
measuring is called a slump. The slump was measured at each
stage of the mixes as per guidelines of BIS [9]. Fig. 2 shows a
typical measurement process and value of slump attained by
concrete specimens. It can be observed that for a w/c of 0.5%,
a medium degree of workability was achieved for concrete
with and without fibers. Further, a comparable slump values
were also observed for fiber concrete of different geometry.
Thus, it can be concluded that the shape of the fiber has a
small significant effect on the workability of concrete.
B. Compressive Strength
The compressive strength test was carried out in accordance
(c)
to BIS [10]. Fig. 3 shows the variations of strength for
different concrete design. The increase in strength for
specimens SP3 and SP4 was attributed to the good mechanical
bonding of fiber in the concrete matrix in comparison to
specimen SP2 where straight slit sheet fiber impart
comparably weaker bonding to the concrete matrix. Fig. 4
shows the pattern of failures of the specimen during the
compressive test. As presented in Figs. 4 (a) and (b), a similar
failure pattern was observed for specimen SP1 and SP2 in
which the specimens were crushed and possessed a brittle
failure. However, a typical wedge failure mode was observed
for specimens SP3 and SP4as shown in Fig. 4 (c). It reveals
that shape of fibers has a significant effect on the failure of the
specimens.

(d)
Fig. 1 Fiber geometry obtained by hand cutting from PET bottle (a)
Straight slit sheet fiber (b) Flattened end slit sheet fiber (c) Deformed
slit sheet fiber (d) Fiber Dimensions

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International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:9, No:7, 2015

(a) SP1
(a)

90
Slump of fresh concrete
International Science Index Vol:9, No:7, 2015 waset.org/Publication/10002312

60
(mm)

30

0
SP1 SP2 SP3 SP4
Concrete sample
(b)
(b) SP2
Fig. 2 (a) Measurement of slump (b) Variation of slump values
C. Splitting Tensile Strength Test
Splitting tensile strength of the specimens was carried out as
per standard guidelines of BIS [11]. It was observed that the
reference specimens without fibers suddenly split out once the
concrete cracked as shown in Fig. 5 (a). However, the PET
fiber concrete specimen exhibited cracking but did not fully
separated out. This shows that PET fiber reinforced concrete
has the ability in dissipating the energy in the post cracking
state. Variations of tensile strength for different concrete
designs are shown in Fig. 5 (b). The improvement in the
tensile strength of fiber concrete over the conventional one
was found to be better for specimen SP3 and SP4 as compared
to SP2. This behavior was also attributed to the mechanical (b) SP3 and SP4
bonding due to shape effect.
Fig. 4 Typical failure of specimens

30 D. Flexural Strength
Compressive strength

Testing of the specimens was carried out as per standard

20 guidelines of BIS [10]. Fig. 6 (a) shows the testing
(MPa)

arrangement of the specimens. All loads in the flexural test

were applied till the specimens attained approximately the
10
same displacement level or collapsed whichever occurred
earlier. This procedure is adopted to facilitate the comparative
0 study of their behavior. The failure of the specimen at the end
SP1 SP2 SP3 SP4 of the test are shown in Fig. 6 (b). Failure of the specimen
with fiber presents better performances as compared to the
Concrete specimen
reference specimens without fiber (SP1). On the other hand
Fig. 3 Variation of compressive strength specimens, SP3 and SP4 show significant improvement over
SP2 for the same displacement level. This behavior is

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International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:9, No:7, 2015

attributed to the good mechanical bonding between the fiber
and the concrete matrix.
The typical load versus displacement curves from the
flexural test on beam prism incorporating different fiber
geometry is shown in Fig. 7. The curves depict that addition of
PET fiber enable a greater capability of resisting more tensile
stress, especially at the post cracking stage. Due to the brittle
behaviour of concrete specimens without fiber, specimen SP1
failed suddenly and collapsed at low loads. However, fibers
concrete specimen’s shows significant improvement. The plot
also depicts that curves of SP3 and SP4 lie above SP2. This
shows that the fiber geometry has a key role on the
performance of the concrete.
International Science Index Vol:9, No:7, 2015 waset.org/Publication/10002312
F. Ultrasonic Test
Assessments of the quality of concrete beam specimens
were carried using ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) according
to BIS [12]. Fig. 9 shows the typical location of transducers on
the specimen. Observed test results revealed that UPV values
of fiber concrete specimens, as well as reference concrete, are
in the range of 3.5 km/sec to 4.5 km/sec. Thus, it indicated
that the quality of UPV values falls in the “good” scale as per
quality assessment.

(a)

(a)

5
Tensile strength (MPa)

(b)
4
3
2
1
0
SP1 SP2 SP3 SP4 (b)
Concrete specimen Fig. 6 (a) Flexural test of concrete beam and (b) Failure pattern of
specimens
(b)
Fig. 5 (a) Specimens failures during splitting tensile test (b) Variation
of splitting tensile strength
E. Energy Dissipation
The ability of a structural member to resist the fracture
during loading depends to a large extent on its capacity to
dissipate its energy. The area form represents the energy
absorbed by the specimen by the load vs. displacement curves.
As seen in Fig. 7 the load-deflection curves plotted for fiber
concrete (SP2 to SP4) are larger than that of the reference
concrete (SP1) without fiber. This shows that PET fiber
concrete dissipated higher amounts of energy. Fig. 8
illustrated the energy dissipation capacity of the specimens.
Fig. 7 Load-displacement curves
Specimens SP3 and SP4 shows higher energy dissipation over
SP2 that reflect better performance in energy dissipation
capability.

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20 REFERENCES
Energy dissipation (kN-

[1] S. B. Kim, N. H Yi, H.Y. Kim, JHJ.Kim, and Y. C. Song, “Material and
15 structural performance evaluation of recycled PET fiber reinforced
concrete,” Cement & Concrete Composites, vol. 32, pp. 232-240, 2010.
mm)

[2] D. Foti, “Preliminary analysis of concrete reinforced with waste bottles

10 PET fibers,” Construction and Building Materials, vol. 25, no. 4, pp.
1906–1915, 2011.
5 [3] D. Foti, “Use of recycled waste pet bottle fibers for the reinforcement of
concrete,” Composites Structures, vol. 96, pp. 396-404, 2013.
[4] L. A. Pereira de Oliveira, J. P. Castro-Gomes. “Physical and mechanical
0 behavior of recycled PET fiber-reinforced mortar,” Construction and
SP1 SP2 SP3 SP4 Building Materials, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 1712–1717, 2011.
[5] I. S.12269., “Specification for OPC-53 Grade cement,” Bureau of Indian
Concrete specimen Standard, New Delhi, 1987.
[6] I. S. 2386, “Methods of test for aggregates for concrete - Part 1: Particle
size and shape,” Bureau of Indian Standard, New Delhi, 1963.
Fig. 8 Energy dissipation capacity [7] I. S. 2386, “Methods of Test for Aggregates for concrete - Part 3:
Specific Gravity, Density, Voids, Absorption and Bulking,” Bureau of
Indian Standard, New Delhi, 1963.
[8] ACI 544.1 R-96, “State-of-the-Art Report on Fiber Reinforced Concrete
Reported by ACI Committee 544,” 2002.
[9] I. S. 1199, “Methods of sampling and analysis of concrete,” Bureau of
International Science Index Vol:9, No:7, 2015 waset.org/Publication/10002312

Indian Standard, New Delhi, 1959.

[10] I. S. 516, “Method of Tests for Strength of Concrete,”Bureau of Indian
Standard, New Delhi 1959 (Reaffirmed 2004).
[11] I. S. 5816, “Method of Test Splitting Tensile Strength,” Bureau of Indian
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Ultrasonic pulse velocity,” Bureau of Indian Standard, New Delhi, 1992.

Fig. 9 Typical locations of transducers on the specimen

V. CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this paper, comparative studies were carried out to
investigate the influence of different fiber geometries of PET
materials on the physical and mechanical properties of
concrete. The following conclusions were drawn.
1. For water cement ratio of 0.5 the workability of fresh
concrete was slightly decreased with the inclusion of
0.5% PET fibers. However, the geometry of the fiber has
a small, significant result on the workability of concrete.
2. The addition of 0.5% PET fiber in concrete enhanced the
compressive strength of specimens and varied with the
fiber geometry.
3. Tensile strength test results demonstrated that the
inclusion of 0.5% PET fiber enhanced the tensile strength.
The inclusion of PET fiber improved the tensile property
and showed the ability in absorbing energy in the post-
cracking state of the specimen.
4. Results from the flexural strength test show that
inclusions of 0.5% PET fiber in the concrete increase the
flexural strength. The load vs. displacement curves shows
a ductile behavior for PET fiber concrete. The increases in
flexural strength of concrete containing PET fiber,
however, vary with the geometry of fiber. Flattened end
slit sheet fiber and deformed slit sheet fiber shows
significant improvement over the straight slit sheet fibers
in term of load carrying capacity and energy dissipation
capability.
5. The mixture of 0.5% PET fibers in concrete shows no
sign of porous structures. Since an expected range of UPV
value (3.5 km/sec to 4.5 km/sec) were obtained.

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